Spoiler alert, the main character is the killer. Shocking. Do yourself a favor and throw this book out the window and hope it hits one of the authors.

I bought this in one of those "buy 3 books for 9€" when I visited Ireland. I like whodunits so I figured I couldn't go wrong. This book is really quick to read, so it makes for a good read for a boring Sunday afternoon. If you don't like it, you won't have wasted much time.
Each chapter is told from the perspective of a different character which get a bit messy because you lost track of who is speaking now and sometimes you have to go back to check. Like I said, it takes little time get to the end and when you do is like "what the fuck?!" The choice for the bad guy doesn't make any sense with what they been telling us so far that I can understand why some people hate this book so much. Patterson has been withholding information from us the whole time and considering that the book is told in everyone's first-person, it rings a little false. But the book was enjoyable and I couldn't put it down until I finished, so that counts for something.

I really liked this book until the end. He trashed it at the end which was such a HUGE disappointment as the book until then was SO VERY GOOD. I listened to it on audiobooks, and having the performers made it even more interesting. Patterson has been kind of disappointing lately. I've been such a fan of his, then he goes and does something as not bright as this. Sorry sir!!! You are starting to lose readers. Get back to your old style of writing, that was good stuff. Have you lost your edge???

Couldn't put this book down. This is the first James Patterson book I've read and I'm now hooked, I can't wait to read more from him. There are a ton of twists and turns, and surprises. Such a great book.

This book is pretty much a beach read (the name Beach Road should be a giveaway).

Honestly, it's not an awful book for the first ~270 pages, and I was ready to give it a respectable 3* review. Not bad for what it is, a quick read with an action heavy plot, but nothing I was gonna really ever think about again.

But man, that might be the worst ending to a book I've ever read. I finished the book and was actively angry. I wish I'd just closed the book after the main court room scene, and called it a day. Like this may be the dumbest ending I have ever read.

Dante is accused of 4 murders he didn't commit. Tom, the main character, represents Dante in court, and is able to prove his innocence. Tom's old love interest, Kate, helps them out, and there's a pretty generic romance subplot.

However, in the last 20 pages, it turns out Tom himself actually committed the murders, and Tom's nephew, Sean (who is mentioned maybe 3 times in the book before this) is actually Loco, a major drug kingpin who's been working with Tom the whole time.

None of this makes any sense. No motives are provided. There's no foreshadowing or clues that Tom isn't all he's cracked up to be. A character we spent 95% of the book growing attached to is actually an awful human being. What was the point of that? Why did Tom represent Dante in court? If Dante had taken the fall, Tom gets away with the murders without issue. Heck, they don't even really explain why Tom wanted the murders committed in the first place. It was related to a drug trade gone bad, but the dudes who got murdered paid all the money they owed Tom, just a few days late.

I thought the book was going to leave who Loco was a mystery, and I actually enjoyed that as a choice. Dante is proven innocent, so justice is served, but the real criminal remains at large. Nothing groundbreaking, but it's Patterson, so I'll take what I can get.

It felt like the authors felt the need to shoehorn in some big plot twist, and this is the best they could come up with. And rather than fully flush out the plot twist, they rush through it in about 3 chapters and call it a day, which left so many unanswered questions.

If Patterson wanted Tom to have been the criminal, he should've wrapped up the Dante plot halfway through the book, and left enough time to actually flush out the Tom as a criminal mastermind subplot. At least give little clues that he wasn't as good a guy as he seemed. Instead, they made Tom a perfect citizen, and then dropped a dud of a bomb on us.

As I said it's an ok enough book through the main plot line, but the awful ending turned it from a 3* to a 1*

I 100% did not see that ending coming even as I was trying to put together the clues and for that reason alone this book is getting four stars. An easy read that turned into a page-turner in the last 40 pages, it reminded me of why I like James Patterson as an author.

I saw the review which revealed the killer, but kept reading anyway. I think it's a quirky way to end a book like this - overall, the book is quirky - and it added another dimension to it.

I think it'd be disappointing for die hard James Patterson fans, but I enjoyed it, even with the whodunnit solved before I'd read two chapters!

It's a bouncy, upbeat style of writing - again, a bit different from Mr Patterson's usual style - but if you can get past that, it's worth reading.

Hmmmm interesting plot twist, not sure what to make of it. Seems kind out of left field. Is that allowed in a mystery?

Wow what a plot twist

58th book read in 2018.

Number 703 out of 718 on my all time book list.

Patterson book are hit and miss; this one is the latter.

I gave the novel three stars, largely because I prefer a much more challenging plot and story. While the authors managed to hold my interest (admittedly, not an easy task), the work lacked stimulating intricacies. Although many readers may feel they've been duped, the ending was possibly the book's salvation.

This was really intriguing, and I was shocked by the ending. But there are some questions that still don't make sense. I hate it when there are loose ends.

Why didn't Kate, Tom, and Raiborne talk about the investigation before the trial? Raiborne had reason to believe Dante wasn't guilty.

Why didn't Manny Rodriguez recognize Tom right away?

How did Raiborne know that Sean was Loco?

Why didn't any of the people at the basketball court mention that Tom was a drug dealer. Ardis was a drug dealer, so wouldn't he know that Tom was a drug dealer?

I re-read it to see what I missed. Here are some parts of interest/irony:

In the intro: "Keep in mind that people often lie..."

When Tom questions Dante: "What are you saying, Dante? You saw Feifer, Walco, and Rochie get shot? Are you telling me you're a witness?" Fortunately for Dante, he says, "Didn't see it, no..."

When Dante said that he didn't know Michael had a gun, Tom thinks, "I wonder if Dante is telling the truth about that." Only someone with a guilty conscience would think everyone else lies as well.

Sean: "So, uncle," he asks between reps, "how's it make you feel to be the least popular person around Montauk?" I assumed this was because Tom helped Dante turn himself in, but now I think it's because Tom killed the 3 men.

Tom: "Don't feel bad, Sean. For us Dunleavys, squandered talent is a family tradition." What is left unsaid is that the other thing they have in common is that they are both drug dealers.

Tom: "A cigar. Maybe belonging to one of the killers.
The news that somebody else may have been at the murder scene who could confirm or add to Dante's story, who maybe saw the three kids killed. Both are significant leads that need to be tracked down." I thought this was because Tom was trying to find proof that Dante wasn't the murderer. Now I know this was Tom covering his tracks.

Loco: "If you ask me, nothing's ruined the city more than headphones and iPods and computers." It makes sense that Sean thought this, since he worked in a record store.

Kate: "I'm warning you, screw up again and you'll answer to Macklin." And he did.